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› › HOW TOMATCHING LUMINOSITY & CONTRAST
One of the best ways to ensure that all the ele-
ments in a composite seem like they’re part of
the same photo is to match the contrast and
luminance values. In many cases, it’s hard to
compare the contrast and luminance values of
each object in your composite with the naked
eye. The color in the image may be distracting,
and you won’t be able to see the difference in
contrast. But, by desaturating the image, the dif-
ferences become more apparent.Step One: Create a Black & White adjustment
layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Black &
White) on top of the two layers of your compos-
ite. Rename this adjustment layer “Luminosity
Check.” By desaturating the image, it becomes
more apparent that our model has less contrast
and is much brighter than the background.Step Two: Click on the model’s layer in the
Layers panel and create a Curves adjustment
layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves)
directly above it. Press Command-Option-G (PC:
Ctrl-Alt-G) to clip the Curves adjustment layer
to the Woman Red Dress smart object layer so
that the changes don’t affect the background
(you can also click the icon of the square with
a bent arrow at the bottom of the Properties
panel to clip the adjustment layer). Then, press
Option-Shift-Y (PC: Alt-Shift-Y), or select Lumi-
nosity from the blend mode pop-up menu (near
the top left of the Layers panel), to make it so
that this adjustment layer only affects the lumi-
nance values of the layer below, and not the
hue or saturation.
Use the Curves adjustment layer to match the
contrast and luminance values as best as possible.
As you make changes to the curve in the Prop-
erties panel, the model will either get darker or
brighter. Try to make the black-and-white com-
posite seem as real as possible by having the dark-
est and brightest points of both layers match.Step Three: When you’ve completed making
your adjustments, disable the Luminosity Check
layer by clicking on the Eye icon to its left. Notice
that the model seems like she fits better in the
background now.